Along the River During the Qingming Festival is considered the most famous ancient scroll painting in China today. It was created at the end of the Northern Song dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Huizong (r 1100-1126) (Fig 1), and has a history of more than 900 years. Why is Along the River During the Qingming Festival so famous? Is it worthy of its reputation? These questions are addressed in the recently published English edition of Along the River During the Qingming Festival: A Day in the Song Dynasty, which reads the scroll in detail. As the author, I invite you to open the scroll with me and seek answers to these questions.
The first thing you notice is its size – the vertical height of the handscroll is 25.5 cm, and the horizontal width is 525 cm. It depicts about 835 people (if only part of the body is visible, it is also counted as a person). In the scroll, a whole world exists, frozen in time, waiting for you to explore it.
When we open the scroll, the first image that comes into view (Fig 2) depicts a tranquil scene of a forest path along which a donkey pack is walking leisurely out of the mist. Leading the pack is a young man, who probably got up early and was a little confused about the direction of the road. He did not turn at the intersection, but continued to walk forward. However, the lead donkey beside him knew to turn without the guidance of its young master (Fig 3). The donkey on the right side of the boy has turned its head in the direction of a small bridge, while the boy was unknowingly still walking straight on with no intention of turning. There are five donkeys in the donkey pack, each carrying two baskets with a blackish material inside them – charcoal. It turns out that the boy had set out early in the morning with his father (at the back of the donkey pack) to sell charcoal in the capital Bianjing.
The above is a simple observation of the first visual story in the scroll. Although it is just a simple observation, the amount of information we garner from the scene is large. For example, we know that the coal-carrying donkey pack travels frequently to Bianjing, as we can see that the donkeys recognise the road, and we also understand that fuel must be very important to the people living in Bianjing. We also know that the young man who leads the way is a little careless and is not as clear-headed as his donkey. On reflection, you will find that there are many careless people in Along the River During the Qingming Festival. Their confusion creates many crises – and they are about to suffer various injuries because of their confusion.
When you realise that there are all kinds of dangers in the scroll, you will find that the young man who leads the way is the first ‘little confusion’ to appear, and this confusion almost makes him take the wrong road. From the perspective of narration, this young man augurs a huge foreshadowing at the beginning of the story. However, from the perspective of narrative rhythm, the beginning of the scroll’s visual story is very peaceful, just like the beginning of an excellent novel that not only depicts the tranquillity before the storm, but also makes the disturbing undercurrents swirl under the surface of that tranquillity with just a small action – the act of the donkey turning its head.
The small bridge that appears at the beginning of the scroll seems to be a kind of landmark. Before crossing the bridge, there is the peacefulness of the countryside, but after crossing the bridge the closeness of the hustle and bustle of the city becomes evident. Not long after crossing the bridge, a burst of noise makes people jump with surprise. It turns out that a horse in a heard returning to the city had been startled. The frightened horse careers wildly about and, just in front of it, there is a child playing in the street. At the same time, the child hurriedly runs towards the nearby adults standing nearby. The startled horse continues to run wildly about, causing panic reactions in the people and animals around it.
The painter has depicted these reactions extremely realistically; for example, the two cows near the startled horse remain relatively calm, while a donkey further away is so frightened that it raises its tail (Fig 4). The reactions of the people were also portrayed differently: a mother is hugging her child tightly; a young man (Fig 4 Person A) is startled by the combination of the frightened horse and the startled donkey, so much so that his buttocks leave the bench in an instant, but his body is not yet upright; the partner opposite the young man (Figure 4 Person B) has not yet realised what has happened and is not alarmed by the startled horse, but is frightened by Person A’s sudden movement in front of him – he has his mouth wide open, in an expression of fright.
An excellent narrator can not only shape characters, but also be good at organising complex events so that they influence each other, thus forming a rich semantic field. The painter of Along the River During the Qingming Festival is obviously good at portraying these connections. In the section featuring the startled horse, the painter also drew another transport pack leaving the city. At the front of this pack, a man leads a donkey and a woman is riding a donkey, both pass an old willow tree (Fig 5). This old willow tree is very strange – the viewer must pay attention to the crown of the tree, which is lush and leafy.
If you look at the body of the tree again, the crown and the trunk are actually disconnected! To emphasise the complete disconnection between the crown and the trunk, the artist has used thick black lines to highlight the cross section, and through the disconnection we can see a fence and roof tiles behind the tree. Interesting, isn’t it? Although it is abnormal, the artist has painted it in this way. The suspended crown may fall on pedestrians at any time, causing death or injury, but look at what the two people walking in front are doing. They are in great danger, unaware of the threat above their heads, also look in the opposite direction to the broken willow.
Obviously, the frightened horse and the broken willow will make the viewer feel nervous and uneasy. If you are careless about the fast-approaching danger and the crisis hanging over your head, you will get into trouble, but if you stay alert you will survive. I think this is one of the themes that the painter wants to express in the scroll.
Looking further along the scroll, there are endless problems caused by negligence. There is a wooden bridge (generally called Rainbow Bridge) in the centre of the painting. When a boat arrives under the bridge, the mast is not even lowered, and it seems that the bridge and the boat are just about to collide in the very next second. ‘Rainbow Bridge Danger’ (Fig 6) is the most famous section of Along the River During the Qingming Festival.
However, few people have noticed the full extent of the ‘danger’. In fact, the Rainbow Bridge Danger is not just a simple collision between a bridge and a boat. There is a large boat with eight people rowing (Fig 7) and moving towards a distressed ship nearby. The eight people at the stern are rowing very hard while the boatman at the bow does not even look forward (Fig 8). Therefore, the distressed ship is being attacked from both sides. Even if it does not hit the bridge, it will be hit by the rowing boat. What is more, there is a boat illegally parked under the bridge, making it even more difficult for the distressed ship to pass.
Due to space limitations, I will not elaborate on the interlocking dangers of this scene. In short, the complexity of Danger at Rainbow Bridge reflects the painter’s superb narrative skills through solid detail depiction and meticulous scene construction. It also allows those who are interested to see the metaphysical depths to consider deeper questions. It is worth looking at in detail again and again.
One of the themes of Along the River During the Qingming Festival is the expression of carelessness or laxity. This theme can be seen in the scene of the grand brick city gate (Fig 9), but the city wall is shabby, a thin earth wall with very weak defence capabilities. As for the soldiers standing guard, there are none. There is only one watchman who is responsible for announcing the time, looking down from on top at the city and observing the excitement below. This city gate symbolises the nation’s gate. At that time, the northern military forces were seriously threatening the security of the Song dynasty, but national defence was weak and the soldiers were scattered and not formed into cohesive groups. People with insight would definitely worry about this situation. Obviously, the painter of Along the River During the Qingming Festival was consciously expressing this concern, hoping to attract the attention of the elite and commanders of the army to the looming crisis.
The earliest postscript says that the author of this famous scroll is Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145), originally a scholar, who only later in life turned to painting. So, we can understand that it is probably because of Zhang Zeduan’s education that he has a stronger altruistic value and a more conscious sense of responsibility than other painters of the time. He painted the scene before various accidents, just like people pressing the pause button at the most terrifying moment when watching a film. If it starts again, all kinds of crises will erupt, and everything will collapse in an instant. This gives Along the River During the Qingming Festival unparalleled narrative potential.
In addition to expressing the serious themes of a pending crisis, the scroll also faithfully records many details of the lives of the people during the Song dynasty (960-1279), which significantly interprets them from a modern-day world perspective. People’s emotions and everyday actions are universal and have remained the same throughout centuries. For example, a barber shaves a customer, a waiter delivers takeout to a customer, a woman pours water into the river after washing clothes (her crotchless pants are hung on the boat awning), someone uses a fan to cover his face when he meets an acquaintance he does not want to see, and, oh, by the way, there is also a thief in the process of stealing something on the Rainbow Bridge, perhaps taking advantage of the chaos caused by the boat.
The characters are vivid, and the details are rich. It is hard to describe them, yet you want to explore this world time and time again. I wrote a book about it, but it has far from exhausted its charm for me. In the future, I will continue to study it and write about it so that more people can understand and enjoy it.
Along the River During Qingming Festival, Unicorn Publishing, ISBN 9781916846487, £30
